Two Sisters and the Christmas Groom ( Read online

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  Two Sisters and the

  Christmas Groom

  Sweethearts of Jubilee Springs

  Book 18

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  By Zina Abbott

  Copyright © 2019 Robyn Echols writing as Zina Abbott

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission.

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  Dedication

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  This book is dedicated my (almost) Christmas groom. We married a few days before Christmas, will celebrate thirty years together this year.

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  Disclaimer

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  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental and unintended.

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  Chapter 1

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  Lower Manhattan, New York ~ Middle October, 1881

  A t the sound of her parents’ bedroom door opening, Annie Flanagan turned to offer her father a cheerful greeting. As soon as she caught sight of his bleary eyes and stooped shoulders, she thought better of it. Tippled too much again, did he? She kept her facial expression pleasant and her tone of voice soft. “Good morning, Da. I’ve your coffee ready, and your potatoes about fried.”

  She watched as her father jerked his chair away from the end of the table and dropped into it. From the scowl on his face as he glanced her way, she knew he still blamed her for the loss of her position working as a maid in the Hamilton home.

  “Nothing good about it, now is there? I’m supposing there’s no breakfast meat with the potatoes?” He peered at the contents of his cup with disdain. “I’ll be needing some Irish coffee to kill this pounding in my head.”

  “Plain coffee is what we have, Da, and lucky we are to be having that.” Annie cringed as her father roared his displeasure in response.

  “And whose fault would that be, if not yours, with you not working, not bringing in your fair share? It’s a blight on the family, you are. Shame on you for misbehaving at the Blakewell’s to the point herself was not giving you a good reference. Whatever you were doing wrong, Mrs. Blakewell is black-listing you among her society friends, now isn’t she? You’ll not be finding it easy to get a job in service amongst those who’ll be paying good wages.”

  Annie turned her back on her father and bit her tongue to keep from responding to his false allegations. She had never told anyone but her mother the reason she quit working for the Blakewell family. Mrs. Blakewell, besides her belittling attitude towards Annie, had increasingly bullied her into performing acts that Annie found dishonest and unconscionable. Annie felt the worst about the time she had yielded to her employer’s badgering and stolen their daughter’s private letter to bring to her. It had caused Annie considerable grief and feelings of remorse that even confession and performing the penitence the priest had given her had not resolved. It had only been after she explained to Delphinia Blakewell why she had taken her letter and begged her forgiveness she had felt relieved of the guilt. Delphinia forgave her and acknowledged it was her mother’s doing more than Annie’s. Not only had Delphinia given her some cast-off clothing to take home to her family to either wear or sell, but she had accepted Annie’s help to get her and her belongings out of New York and on a train to Colorado where she had prospects of marriage waiting.

  Then there was the issue of Delphinia’s fiancé the family forced on her. More than once, the bounder caught Annie alone while performing her duties and tried to have his way with her. She had needed to get away from him, as well as Mrs. Blakewell.

  Although Annie could not read or write, she trusted the letter of recommendation Delphinia left for her spoke of her work in positive terms. She immediately offered her resignation in the Blakewell home and, using Delphinia’s letter, secured a position in the Hamilton home. Unfortunately, Mrs. Blakewell, already thwarted by her daughter’s disappearance from the house and her unavailability for the arranged marriage, would not allow Annie to escape the household unscathed. She personally called on Mrs. Hamilton, accused Annie of theft—the so-called theft being the clothes Delphinia gave her days before she left home—and advised Mrs. Hamilton to fire Annie immediately.

  With no job, and no letter of recommendation that would be acceptable to the social elite of New York City, work prospects for Annie looked bleak until the day Mr. Blakewell showed up on her doorstep. In the middle of the day like it had been, her father, older brother, Patrick, who chose to go by his formal name to avoid confusion with his father who was known as Paddy, and sister, Kate, were off to work, and her younger siblings off to school before the girls left for part-time work. Only she and her ma, Fiona, were home.

  At first, when Mr. Blakewell appeared at their door, Fiona assumed a defensive attitude.

  Annie held no grudges against Mr. Blakewell. Her former employer had treated her with a reasonable degree of courtesy and sufficient respect one in service could expect from an employer. At least, he had never trapped her in a secluded corner and tried to force himself on her like Andrew Sopworth had.

  Annie welcomed him into their apartment, even though her face had flamed with embarrassment because of their mean living quarters. Fortunately, even though her mother pursed her lips, uncertain of the wisdom of allowing Annie’s former employer to visit, she also greeted him. However, Mr. Blakewell did not seem to notice, or mind, their apartment. The request and offer he gave her that day filled her spirit with light and confidence in a bright future, instead of the dreary cloud of failure and despair that had engulfed her since being falsely accused and dismissed by Mrs. Hamilton’s housekeeper.

  Delphinia wanted her. She now lived in Colorado and had married—not to one of the miners with whom she had been corresponding, but to a man who owned a furniture store. He came from an Albany, New York, family similar in station to the Blakewell’s. Her father, after realizing his daughter’s former fiancé was the scoundrel both Delphinia and Annie knew him to be, decided to release half her dowry to his new son-in-law. Actually, to Delphinia, he admitted. since her husband assured him she would be better suited to handle the investments than he would be.

  However, her new husband did not have servants. For a wedding gift, she asked Mr. Blakewell to contact Annie and request—beg, he assured with a smile—she to come to Jubilee Springs to work there as her maid. With the scarcity of women in the high mountain mining town, Delphinia had no prospects of finding someone there to work for her. She had complete confidence in Annie’s ability and honesty. He assured Annie that Delphinia promised, if for any reason Annie did not like Colorado or working for her, she would give Annie a generous severance pay, a train ticket back to New York, and another letter of recommendation.

  Mr. Blakewell had to explain the meaning of severance pay to Annie. All she knew was, when people in service were dismissed, they were lucky if they received the full wages owed to them before they were cast out to find other work the best they could. Delphinia’s offer to pay her in addition to any wages she earned, and a ticket back home if she did not like Colorado, left her stunned. Mr. Blakewell did not allow her much time to muse over it as he continued talking. All she could think about was, D
elphinia wanted her.

  “My daughter recognizes that, with the shortage of marriageable women in the region, she might not have you long before some young man claims your attention and affection and offers you marriage. She needs you to teach her how to cook and clean.”

  That comment stunned Annie. There were men in this wild place out West who would wish to know her better and quickly marry her? No, she’d be loyal to Delphinia and not allow a man to turn her head and persuade her to walk away from her job. “Pleased I am to be accepting the work, Mr. Blakewell….” Annie hesitated, and then offered him a sheepish expression. “I’m sorry, sir. Being home like I’ve been, I’ve slipped back into the speech of the Irish.” She sighed in relief as he waved his hand to brush away her concern.

  “I doubt your Irish accent will matter in Colorado, Miss Flanagan. From what my daughter said, there are several Irish working as miners in the Prosperity Mine up there. In fact, she mentioned that, at the harvest dance she attended before her marriage, the mine owner announced that one of the company houses would be awarded to a young Irish fellow as soon as he found a wife through a marriage broker with whom the mine owners have contracted.”

  Annie had smiled in response. She did not offer the information that her sister, Kate, had contacted this same marriage broker, Mrs. Lizett Millard, at the Colorado Bridal Agency. Kate had started a correspondence with the Irish miner, Michael O’Hare. Instead, she listened as Mr. Blakewell continued speaking.

  “It was at this same dance where one of my former business associates who is working up there recognized my daughter. Using a rather roundabout method, he passed along word to me she was safe and well. It took some doing for me and some of my men to puzzle it out, but I figured out who sent the message, which told me where she went. I arrived right after she married. At least, I was able to meet my new son-in-law and take them out for a wedding supper.”

  “Then, she’s happy with him, is she?”

  “Yes. In fact, she already has a vision of the role she would like to play in helping his business grow in ways they both want, but which will allow him to concentrate on what he truly loves to do—work with wood. He designs and builds beautiful, high-quality furniture. It is too bad you are no longer working for us. I’m still waiting for it to arrive, but I purchased an entire room arrangement from Mr. Nighy—well, from Delphinia, since she is the one who pitched it to me. Then again, if you choose to go out there, you will see all the beautiful pieces this man creates.”

  Mr. Blakewell had focused his gaze on Annie and grown more serious. “That is why she needs you, Annie. She can sell furniture, she can manage investments and businesses, she can host social events, but she does not have the skills you do to maintain a home. She barely knows how to boil water for tea.”

  Her da’s grunt as he ate his fried potatoes and drank his black coffee she had set before him brought her back to the present. In spite of her father’s grumpiness, Annie’s spirits refused to be dampened as she thought once more of Mr. Blakewell’s visit and job offer. That day, he had insisted on giving her severance pay—at Delphinia’s specific request, he had assured her—and promised to return with a train ticket and instructions a few days later. Annie had gratefully thanked him. Her only request to him was that he allow her to meet him elsewhere or come in the middle of a working day when most of her family were gone from home. Although he did not say anything, she guessed he suspected the reason behind her request.

  As soon as he left, she had turned to her mother. “Ma, there’s no need for Da to be knowing about this money. I’m taking it now, and I’ll be putting it against what we owe at the dry goods, green grocer, and butcher. Please, don’t be telling Da about my leaving for Colorado. I’ll be sending money home, but I’ll not be giving it to you where you’ll be obligated to put it in Da’s hands to support his drinking. I’m twenty-one and of age, Ma. I’m not beholden to turn my pay over to Da. I’ll be getting accounts in my own name at the stores and making arrangements to be sending payments directly to where you’ll be shopping for food. I’ll tell them to be allowing you to charge against it, but not Da. And, no spirits, Ma, no matter how he begs and threatens. No tobacco, either. Most of his wages go to that instead of supporting this family, and that’s enough.”

  Fortunately, her mother, tears in her eyes, agreed to Annie’s plan. Annie recalled speaking of it to Kate after swearing her to secrecy. Only Kate, her mother, and she knew within the week she would board the train to start a new life in Colorado.

  The night before Annie planned to depart, she managed to get Kate alone for a few minutes after her sister returned from her job as a scullery maid with the Van Cleet family. “You’re still writing to the miner in Jubilee Springs, Katie? You think you’re liking him well enough you can see being married to him—maybe falling in love with him?”

  Katie shrugged. “I’m liking him, but we haven’t been writing long enough for me to be knowing if he’ll be my choice, now have I? I received another letter from a man in Central City, Colorado. It’s not far west of Denver, but I’m not knowing if it’s on the same train line that would be going to Jubilee Springs. I must be admitting, I’m having good thoughts about his letter. Either way, I’ll not be living so far from you as here in New York, now will I?”

  Annie forced her expression not to reflect her concern that the bridal agency had sent her sister a letter from a prospective husband who did not live in Jubilee Springs. One of the things she had counted on when she agreed to move to Colorado to work for Delphinia was that her sister would soon join her.

  “You’ll need to be deciding what’s best for you, Katie. Please be keeping in mind, I’ll be living in Jubilee Springs. It’ll be hard on me moving so far from Ma and the family. But, you and I, we’ve always been close, now haven’t we? It’s heartbroken I’ll be if we end up not living close enough to each other to be visiting often.”

  Both of them, with tears in their eyes, hugged before Annie once again studied Kate’s face. “You’ll be writing to me, won’t you, Katie? Delphinia—Mrs. Nighy, I suppose I need be calling her—she can be reading your letters to me. I’m sure herself or someone else will be helping me write back to you.”

  “Certain it is, Annie. I’ll let you know what’s happening with the family. I’m just hoping Da won’t be taking it too bad when he learns you’ve left us. I’ll be sneaking off the same way.”

  “We’ll still be family, no matter what. Besides, Ma is wanting us both to be going, getting out of the Irish sector here, now isn’t she?”

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  Chapter 2

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  Jubilee Springs, Colorado – End October, 1884

  D elly Nighy, the former Delphinia Blakewell, raised her free hand and waggled her finger in front of her. “Oh, look, Ben. The train is crossing the bridge. We must hurry if we are to be on the platform when Annie steps off the train.”

  Bennett Nighy reached over and patted his wife’s other hand, which rested on his forearm. He glanced up at the profile of the beautiful, slender woman beside him, her cheeks already tinged with pink due to the brisk autumn breeze. “We’ll get there in time, Delly. It takes a few minutes for the train to stop, release steam, and prepare for the passengers to disembark.”

  Delly picked up the pace, the heels of her boots muted against the damp wood of the boardwalk. “Still, I’m anxious to see her.”

  “You are acting like it is a long-lost friend you plan to greet, not someone you have hired as a maid. Not to mention, I don’t understand how this is going to work, especially while we are still living in the one-bedroom apartment above the furniture store.”

  Without breaking stride, Delly turned and imperiously stared down at her husband’s face. She knew by the hint of a smug grin he wore he was teasing her. Still, she refused to let his comment pass. “I have already explained the necessity. Last night’s debacle with the boiled potatoes should have convinced you of
the importance of bringing in someone who can teach me to cook. I never knew before it was possible to burn water.”

  Bennett shook his head and laughed. “Delly, if you don’t want to risk burning the pan dry, you need to stay in the kitchen and keep an eye on the stove. You cannot set a pot of water on the burner to boil and then decide to run downstairs to the office to check on some invoices. Besides, I thought you said you knew how to make tea. That involves boiling water.”

  Delly inhaled with forced patience. “First of all, Mr. Nighy, one heats water for tea in a teapot. Once the water begins to bubble and put off steam, the teapot spits and sputters rather loudly, signaling the water is ready to be poured over the tea infuser. That open pan I put on to heat for the potatoes gave me no warning whatsoever when the water started to boil.”

  “When you allow yourself to get distracted with other work, of course you lose track of time, and the pan boils dry.”

  Delly cleared her throat and twitched her shoulders. “Yes, well, that may be. However, I find it far too boring to watch a pot of water while waiting for it to boil.” She halfway turned toward Ben. “And do not say I could have filled the time peeling and cutting the vegetables to go in the water. I also find such a task mind-numbing.” She straightened up and continued her march forward. “That is why, especially when we get our new house, I must find someone to cook for us full-time. It’s not like we don’t have the money to hire someone. I’m sure there are women who enjoy doing that sort of work who would welcome the employment.”

  “So, Annie is a good cook?”

  Delly hesitated. “I can’t say whether she is or not. She worked as a housemaid and a personal maid for me. Mother had another woman who did all the cooking. However, Bennett, most women from the lower classes learn to cook. I’m sure she is better at it than I am.”